Tools and Woodworking


Penobscot tatting basket block, ca. 1900

Penobscot tatting basket block, ca. 1900
Item 23463   info
Hudson Museum, Univ. of Maine

Carvers selected specific woods to meet their needs: flexible white ash for snowshoe frames, basket handles and rims; hard maple for canoe thwarts and paddles, and tool handles; rot-resistant cedar for canoe linings; resilient hornbeam for bows; easily carved pine for basket gauges; and straight-stocked gray birch and poplar for rootclubs and walking sticks.

This block produced a variety of tatting basket forms, such as acorn-shaped and strawberry-shaped tatting baskets, which have a loop handle to hang from the arm and a hole in the top for the tatting ball's thread to come out.

Item 3 of 27